AceszHigh
Contributor
A group of 7 of us stayed in Hamlet Villa 10 March 2-10. 1st time on the island for all of us, it was a blast!! The villa was perfect , clean and spacious , everything worked properly, no issues. Highly recommend this villa for large groups. Rented 2 toyota Hilux trucks from budget rent a car at the airport. No issues there. Radio didn't work in one of the trucks, no big deal We added a dent to the already dented rear bumper, they didnt notice (the truck looked fairly beat up anyway, which was a benefit).
Dive friends bonaire were great. Friendly staff, all the tanks had great fills (around 3300 usually, with a 31-32% nitrox mix consistently). They let us take 3 tanks each a few times which was good for the far North and far south trips. I did 25 dives over the week.
Last day, we took a truck up to the national park. Hiked Brandaris ..took about 50 minutes. The view was beautiful!! Highly recommend it! It would be a very hot hike certain times of the day, luckily we were in the shade most of the time. You have to climb your way over rocks for part of the hike..it gets a little tricky, nothing too hard for someone in decent physical shape though. None of us are experienced hikers. A note about the national park: if you want to hike Brandaris , you have to get to the park by noon.
We all flew on DAE Dutch Antilles Express airline. A week before our trip, our original flights were cancelled. In our case, it actually benefitted us because we got to leave a day earlier. We had to take an earlier flight than planned (same day though) for departure. On the Miami to Bonaire trip you are allowed a 70 pound bag (maybe 75?)..this is VERIFIED. If they give you problem, you just say you have scuba gear and you get extra allowance. My checked bag was about 65 lbs (brought my pony tank, valve off, no problem). I also carried on my laptop in a backpack, and a roll aboard bag with all of my scuba gear. They didn't really care about the weight of the carry ons.
Flights themselves - delayed a few hours both ways. Our MIA-CUR flight was delayed a couple hrs , as was the curacao to bonaire. We got a crazy deal with DAE (buy one get one, RT tix came to less than $200 a person) , so it was hard to complain about the delays. We saw delays for similar flights with Insel air too, not sure if theyre any better. The staff were very friendly though.
Restaurants - La guernica was our favorite. Plazita Limena was a close 2nd..we ate there twice. A note about going out to eat on the island - everywhere is on Island time. Or maybe people in USA are just too rushed? Dinners normally take 2-3 hrs.
Some favorite dives:
Karpata (saw a manta ray on the surface here before entering)
Cliff (great night dive too!)
Alice in Wonderland or Angel City (next to each other) - make sure you go to the 2nd reef!
Invisibles
Candyland
Oil slick leap -- partially just for the fun of the big jump in!
Dive friends bonaire were great. Friendly staff, all the tanks had great fills (around 3300 usually, with a 31-32% nitrox mix consistently). They let us take 3 tanks each a few times which was good for the far North and far south trips. I did 25 dives over the week.
Last day, we took a truck up to the national park. Hiked Brandaris ..took about 50 minutes. The view was beautiful!! Highly recommend it! It would be a very hot hike certain times of the day, luckily we were in the shade most of the time. You have to climb your way over rocks for part of the hike..it gets a little tricky, nothing too hard for someone in decent physical shape though. None of us are experienced hikers. A note about the national park: if you want to hike Brandaris , you have to get to the park by noon.
We all flew on DAE Dutch Antilles Express airline. A week before our trip, our original flights were cancelled. In our case, it actually benefitted us because we got to leave a day earlier. We had to take an earlier flight than planned (same day though) for departure. On the Miami to Bonaire trip you are allowed a 70 pound bag (maybe 75?)..this is VERIFIED. If they give you problem, you just say you have scuba gear and you get extra allowance. My checked bag was about 65 lbs (brought my pony tank, valve off, no problem). I also carried on my laptop in a backpack, and a roll aboard bag with all of my scuba gear. They didn't really care about the weight of the carry ons.
Flights themselves - delayed a few hours both ways. Our MIA-CUR flight was delayed a couple hrs , as was the curacao to bonaire. We got a crazy deal with DAE (buy one get one, RT tix came to less than $200 a person) , so it was hard to complain about the delays. We saw delays for similar flights with Insel air too, not sure if theyre any better. The staff were very friendly though.
Restaurants - La guernica was our favorite. Plazita Limena was a close 2nd..we ate there twice. A note about going out to eat on the island - everywhere is on Island time. Or maybe people in USA are just too rushed? Dinners normally take 2-3 hrs.
Some favorite dives:
Karpata (saw a manta ray on the surface here before entering)
Cliff (great night dive too!)
Alice in Wonderland or Angel City (next to each other) - make sure you go to the 2nd reef!
Invisibles
Candyland
Oil slick leap -- partially just for the fun of the big jump in!
